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Matt SheehanMatt holds an MSc in Geography and GIS. He has been working with clients solving problems with GIS for over 17 years. Matt founded WebMapSolutions whose mission is to put innovative, intuitive GIS driven applications into the hands of new and existing users.

GIS opportunities … looking for nuggets of gold

If we all look in the same place we will never find those elusive nuggets of gold.

I read that sentence years ago, and it always stuck in my mind. To me it meant set your own path, don’t follow the herd. The most discussed and publicized opportunities are no longer opportunities. Discover the yet to be discovered.

As GIS comes out of the shadows, opportunities abound. The audience for, and applications of the technology has dramatically increased. But like gold the opportunities are not sitting on the surface, they are there to be discovered. Go where everybody else is looking and success may well be elusive. Read what the GIS community is discussing; hot topics and trends. New, focused conferences are popping up left and right. All very interesting, and no doubt valid, but …..

The riches here are for the few. There are better places to look.

I’m being purposely non-specific in this post. Why? Our company focus is to research and discover new opportunities to apply GIS to solve client problems. That means leading and not following. I could share more, provide specific examples. But that would be missing the point.

There is gold in them thar GIS hills. But to hit the mother load forge your own path, don’t move with the herd.